Opinion
The European Court of Justice has fined search engine provider Google 2.5 billion euros for competition. But there is no reason to celebrate.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has confirmed a 2017 decision by the European Commission that Google abused its market power in search. It concerns the price comparison service “Google Shopping”. Google pushed the results of its service to the top of search queries. This offense will now cost the online giant a 2.4 billion euro competition fine. Yes, the commentators are cheering! Brussels has finally paid the juggernaut back!
Are we really that naive? Do we really believe that Google has to be the neutral, digital consumer center, for news and products alike? Obviously, otherwise the 65,000 searches per second would be inexplicable. No doubt, many of you, dear readers, have first googled what the ruling against Google is all about.
Accepting the Google ruling with shame
The ECJ’s position should not be applauded. It should be acknowledged with shame. Because the problem is not Google. The problem is us. We consumers have allowed ourselves to be incapacitated in recent years. We have sacrificed our intelligence to digital search engines that we naively hope are smarter than us.
In Germany, Google Shopping is only in sixth place among the most popular comparison portals. According to Statista, it is followed by Check24, Idealo, Billiger.de, Verivox and Günstiger.de. Anyone who believes that there – unlike Google – millions of products and services are compared out of pure altruism is a fool. Everywhere it is about making money through commissions, otherwise the portals would not be able to operate.
For example, certain providers who generally do not enter into commission deals do not even appear on the comparison portals. For example, if you are looking for car insurance, for example on Check24, Verivox and Co., you will not even find the often cheapest HUK24. Stiftung Warentest has often criticized the apparent transparency of such portals. The Federal Cartel Office complains that most providers do not keep their advertising promises, but act like brokers.
Almost all comparison portals act like brokers
Comparison tests by some media are even more unreliable. If you search for “The best printers” on Google, the first result you get is a link to a page of the computer magazine “Chip”. There, six of the supposedly 16 tested printers are listed, with “test winner” and “price tip” verdicts. Below are links to Amazon, so that you can buy the products with one click. At least “Chip” makes it clear that they earn money from every sale. Nowadays, pretty much all publishers (including the star) such “affiliate” deals. This is not objectionable, because the less advertising money and sales revenue flow into the traditional media, the more often they have to look for new sources of income. And these test reports are by no means dubious per se. Readers often receive well-prepared overviews of the features and performance of the products. Nevertheless, we should not act as if Google is the only one who wants to make money with its search.
It is time for us consumers to re-evaluate ourselves. We should return to old skills that have helped us consume sensibly for centuries:
- We should believe in specialist salespeople again. They often have good expertise thanks to training and everyday experience. And a good business has a reputation to lose; that is true consumer protection. So: off to the brick-and-mortar stores, even if it costs a few euros more.
- We should no longer forgo the analytical power of our eyes and hands, but check the look and feel of the products before buying. Here too, the advice is: back to offline shopping!
- We should put more trust in strong, good branded goods again. This has been lost to a large extent because it is all about price. There is an old saying: If you buy cheap, you buy twice.
Consumer sovereignty will not be restored by Brussels imposing a billion-dollar fine on Google. It will only return if we admit that we are going down the wrong path when we rely solely on comparison portals. Or, to put it in Kant’s words: This is the only way we can escape our self-inflicted immaturity.
Source: Stern
